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Monday, March 23, 2009

Tom Kah Gai, Cooking School and Elephants

Lisu Elephant Camp in Chaing Mai, Thailand

The Morning Market and Farm Cooking School Chaing Mai, Thailand

Thailand is beautiful. It's sights and sounds and fragrances are unforgetable and while you occasionally stumble on tourist sctick, you'll probably love every minute of it. The hill tribes - insular ethnic minorities - put on quite a show for visitors; they have tourist villages as well as those they actually live in. They have wonderful costumes, but when you're not looking they dress much as other Thai. Not everything is for show, however. These tribes have been slow to adapt to the modern world and their health and education has suffered. Elephant camps help them care for the members of their tribal families and they really do take good care of their animals. One of the tribes, the Lisu, operated the elephant camp that so delighted the group I traveled with. When you see the pictures I think you'll see why this is one of my favorite memories of Thailand.

Another favorite memory is that of Thai cooking schools. Cooking schools in Southeast Asia tend to follow a pattern. The day begins just after first light with a stop at the local market to purchase ingredients needed for the day's lesson. Then it's on to classes which start early in order to avoid the intense midday heat. In Chiang Mai the school was in the country and part of a beautiful organic farm. Our instructor was a young Thai chef who brooked no departure from her agenda. She was about 4' 8" tall and if she weighed 85 pounds I'd be surprised. I don't quite know how she did it, but I'm here to tell you she struck fear in the hearts of some members of our group. Most of the men were there because their wives told them they had to be. The guys were known to horse around if cooking or weaving was involved. The highlight of my day was watching her watch them with an unblinking stare that prevented infractions before they could occur. She was there to teach, we were there to learn and learning did not include small talk, laughter or lack of respect for the food. I'll bear witness to the fact that her class was run with military efficiency - all dishes were prepared as directed and lunch was ready at noon. The other class didn't do so well. I heard lots of laughter over there and they were an hour late for lunch. That gave us lots of time to explore the old plantation and talk with the folks who helped with the gardens and kitchen prep work. I had a great time, but when I evaluated the day I became aware of a problem I would encounter throughout our trip - overcooked, dry meat. Today's recipe is based on the Tom Kah Gai recipe from the Farm School. I've reworked it in order to avoid dry chicken. This is a really simple recipe. Most of the ingredients can be found in supermarkets. The two items that might pose a problem are galangal and kiffir lime leaves. If a recipe calls for 3 kiffir lime leaves, substitute the peeled zest of 1 lime. If you are unable to find galangal - also called blue ginger - substitute an equal quantity of fresh ginger. The fresh ginger lacks the musky overtones of galangal, but it's a great substitute.

Mary I am mesmerized by your slide hows. I LOVE them. The cooking school photos are beyong what I ever could have imagined. Thank you for sharing this. It really is thoughtful of you to bring us into your travels. BTW, the soup sounds terrific, but I must go look atyour slide shows again!!

My husband and I spent 3 weeks in Thailand on our honeymoon--this post was quite the walk down memory lane for me! We also did the elephant camp and cooking school near and in, respectively, Chiang Mai. Although we rode elephants down south, in the peninsula, near the jungle. We LOVED it in Thailand.

I find the SE Asian penchant for just boiling meat to be a little odd and I frequently re-work that part of recipes.

I would encourage strongly interested readers, those who cook Thai food a lot, to either mail order kaffir limes leaves (they freeze really well upon arrival) or grow their own.

I love Tom Kah Gai, Mary. I worked at a restaurant where our chef was a tiny Thai woman not unlike the person you describe. Our line cooks were young kids who had worked their way up from dishwashers-all strapping teen agers. They were terrified of her, and not one of them could work as hard as she!

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